By: Connor Barclay

Are your fall weekends looking to be as dead as the leaves? Are you looking for a fun, inclusive, and dog-friendly day trip? Has your life been lacking a certain Elizabethan flair to it? Look no further than the Pennsylvania Renaissance Faire at Mount Hope Estate, a 35-acre site in Manheim that transforms into Mount Hope Shire from August to October every year!

In just under a two-hour carriage ride from Holy Family, you could find yourself in the midst of a fantastical recreation of a Renaissance-era English village. The faire runs Saturdays and Sundays through October 25^th, from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m., rain or shine. A ticket costs $42.95 for entry on one of the remaining faire dates, after fees.

Prioritizing entertainment over strict historical accuracy, this event is complete with costumed actors, themed food and drink options, live music, and merchants selling glass and leatherwork, hand-forged weapons, capes, cloaks, and custom jewelry! For those of drinking age, you can also visit several pourhouses located throughout the shire for a diverse selection of estate-crafted adult beverages. They serve anything from canned cocktails to on-tap beers and hard ciders, and even the estate’s own handcrafted wine and mead varieties. All vendors also accept the faire’s own “Coin of the Realm,” which holds a $5 value per coin and can even be saved for future faire dates.

If you don’t want to spend the $50 minimum on coin conversion, that’s okay. Just be sure to bring some cash with you if you plan on buying food or drinks in the faire itself, because all food vendors are cash-only. The food, on that note, can be a point of contention for faire goers on a budget. Prices have increased in recent years, and it now costs an egregious $18 for an iconic giant smoked turkey leg. While the faire doesn’t allow outside food or beverages apart from empty or factory sealed water bottles (no more than 32 oz.), you are allowed re-entry so long as you get your hand stamped on your way out. Coming prepared with your own food and drink cooler in the car is a great way to skirt around the dubious faire prices.

The shire also wouldn’t be complete without around-the-clock shows and demos from tipsy trivia to long distance archery (not to be combined), all culminating in the day’s end Ultimate Joust, where you can cheer on your chosen pair of knights as they do battle for your entertainment—and Her Majesty’s favor.

If you’re the type who likes to go all out, be sure to check out the Pennsylvania Renaissance Faire website where you can buy tickets and discover the theme for that weekend to plan your costume. The final three weekends of October are all Halloween themed, complete with village-wide trick-or-treating. Alternatively, wear whatever you feel most at home in, be it plate mail or pajamas. Just make sure to dress for the weather—the faire runs rain-or-shine!

Perhaps the most fun part of the faire, at least in my experience, is the people. And I don’t just mean the actors—though they are their own kind of fun. No, I’m talking about the other visitors. I ran into a group dressed as a brotherhood of monks, for instance, who told me that they had made all of their purchase decisions that day by rolling a giant 20-sided die.

“It’s the Disneyland of ren faires,” said Kandu Barrymore, an on-foot vendor selling copper rose blooms, when I asked what he thought of the event. After our conversation, Barrymore led me toward the Queen’s guards, who, upon learning I was a “scribe” writing about the faire, granted me an audience with Her Majesty. Not about to give up the chance to interview the Queen, I humbly took a knee.

On the topic of the faire, Her Majesty—in all of her royal splendor—said, “To experience the shire makes one a more empathetic human.” The actors, of course, never broke character, and I even found myself taking on a character of my own without consciously thinking about it.

If you want to have your own experience at the Pennsylvania Renaissance Faire, it isn’t too late! But tickets sell out quickly, so act fast. There are still tickets available for the remaining weekends in the season. If they do happen to sell out before you get a chance to purchase one, worry not! Sunset faire tickets are available for same-day purchase starting at 3 PM, with entry to the faire at 4 PM.

If you’d rather spend a full day at the faire, it’s completely understandable. Check back at the Mount Hope Box Office website in mid-October for Yuletide at the Faire tickets instead for a faire full of holiday magic and mirth.

See you at the faire, and God save the queen!

Connor Barclay is a senior English/Secondary Education major at Holy Family University, graduating in spring 2027. An avid reader and writer, he spends his free time (and not-so-free time) at punk/rock concerts or rock climbing.